Canepa: Spanos hires a Wolf for hunt

Chargers President Dean Spanos explained his decision to fire the team's head coach and general manager Monday, and how they would go about finding replacements for them..
— Peggy Peattie / U-T San Diego

Chargers President Dean Spanos explained his decision to fire the team's head coach and general manager Monday, and how they would go about finding replacements for them..
— Peggy Peattie / U-T San Diego

There are times slam dunks are missed. Jimmy Raye widely was thought to be a sure thing, the Chargers’ next general manager heading for the basket alone in the wake of Monday’s firing of A.J. Smith.

But the dunk clanked off the rim.

It still may happen. After canning Smith and head coach Norv Turner _ who later basically would throw A.J. under the bus for not providing him with players necessary to win NFL championships (although Norv certainly had enough of them when he started in 2007) _ Chargers boss Dean Spanos said Monday morning Raye, a member of the organization for 17 years and the Chargers’ director of player personnel, “is one of the potential candidates.”

He is a “candidate” now because Spanos has taken a line from “Pulp Fiction.” He’s bringing in The Wolf.

That would be highly regarded football man Ron Wolf, who the team has hired as a consultant in the search for a new head coach and GM. There already are those out there complaining Spanos doesn’t know what he’s doing so he needs a consultant.

Dean Spanos is not a football man (but he hired Smith, who built the most talented roster in The League before so much went wrong). Al Davis was very much a football man, and even he relied on Wolf, who helped him build the 1970s Raiders. Wolf later served as the highly successful GM of 1990s Packers.

Several coaches and GMs were fired Black Monday. No reason to wander blindfolded into the carousel.

Wolf, 74, is not a candidate to run Chargers football ops. “Consultant only,” Spanos said. “He’s well respected within the league and had a great run in Green Bay.”

Spanos correctly added that the “GM is the foundation for building a football franchise, “and that, in the end, “it will be my hire,” although Wolf, capologist Ed McGuire and son John Spanos, the club’s director of college scouting, will be deeply involved in the hiring process.

It also had been widely assumed son John eventually would take over as GM, but dad put that assumption to bed.

“In some point in time, not this year, but somewhere down the line, he’s taking my position,” Dean said. “My other son (A.G.) runs the business operation. He (John) is not going to be general manager.”

Well, now that clearly clears up some things. It means there won’t be an interim GM, one there to fill a chair until Dean thinks his son is ready. That also will please many of the Angry Villagers, who hated the thought of a Spanos sitting behind the GM’s desk.

Who’s to say John wouldn’t be a great GM? All I can tell you is that the Giants and Panthers reached Super Bowls with former sportswriters serving as GMs. So there.

There is no mold to the job. Some GMs are phonies, some are not. You’ve got to be lucky to get the right one, and Wolf, whose son Eliot currently serves as Packers director of pro personnel, shouldn’t be a hindrance. Maybe young Eliot will be a candidate. He, too, is highly regarded.

But enough about nepotism. The general manager hire is first up _ the process has begun with letters of consent already sent to various clubs asking to interview candidates _ because it will be he who hires the next head coach.

And there will be many choices. Assistant coaches currently involved with playoff teams during this bye week can be interviewed. Others who have teams playing this weekend cannot. But with no GM in place, interviewing assistants from the likes of the 49ers, Falcons, Broncos and Patriots seems out of the question (although contacts could be made)

But seven head coaches _ and a number of GMs _ were canned Monday, and a few of the coaches have a pedigree. Ken Whisenhunt was dismissed in Arizona and he took the Cardinals to a Super Bowl. Ditto Lovie Smith in Chicago. Wolf brought Mike Holmgren to Green Bay. Is Holmgren interested in coaching again? Wolf also worked with Holmgren assistants Andy Reid, Jon Gruden and Steve Mariucci in Green Bay.

If Smith had remained, it’s doubtful he would have hired a college coach to replace Norv. But Spanos hasn’t nixed that idea, saying: “I would say it’s open to all possibilities.”

This remains the most attractive opening for a GM and coach, because if protection can be found for quarterback Philip Rivers, he remains one of the best. Not many teams with elite quarterbacks fire their head coach and GM, because those teams usually make the playoffs.

Spanos obviously thought about doing what he did Monday a year ago, but he passed, wanting to give Turner and Smith another year. Turner appeared to take his inevitable firing harder than Smith, who told me he thought he should be fired this year and said the same thing last year.

“It didn’t work out,” Spanos said. “I take full responsibility for it.”

No one will be hired here without Dean Spanos’ consent, which is how bosses do things, how it should be. The rest of us are passengers, and Monday Norv and A.J. were culled from the merry-go-round.